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General Sees Joint Bases for Afghans After 2014
New York Times By THOM SHANKER March 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - The American commander in Afghanistan and the Pentagon’s top policy officer on Tuesday described the value of sustaining a long-term relationship with Kabul, and raised the possibility of operating joint military bases with local forces long after foreign troops are scheduled to withdraw in 2014.
NATO to Probe New Afghan Civilian Casualties
VOA News March 16, 2011
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered an investigation into yet another case of alleged civilian casualties caused by a coalition airstrike, this time involving the mistaken killing of two Afghan children.
Afghanistan intelligence service detains seven terrorists
KABUL, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan intelligence service National Directorate of Security (NDS) has detained seven terrorists including a four-member group of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) over the past one week, the agency said Wednesday.
21 Afghan army soldiers killed in 25 days: official
KABUL, March 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 21 Afghan National Army soldiers have been killed in the past 25 days throughout the violence-hit Afghanistan, Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
In Afghan Kilns, a Cycle of Debt and Servitude
New York Times By MICHAEL KAMBER March 15, 2011
WATA POOR, Afghanistan - The labor boss stood looking down at a man and his four sons squatting in the dirt, the boys mechanically rolling and slapping mud as they made line after line of dull gray bricks.
U.S. General Cites 'Significant' Progress In Afghanistan, But Calls Gains 'Fragile'
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 15, 2011 By Heather Maher
The commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan has told a Senate committee that NATO forces have largely succeeding in halting the momentum of the Taliban and that U.S. plans to begin withdrawing troops in July remain on schedule.
Taliban Leaders Divided: NDS
Tolo news March 16, 2011
There have been serious disagreements between Taliban leaders and their fighters within the Taliban's leading council, National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Wednesday.
Karzai to Dissolve Special Electoral Tribunal
Tolo news March 15, 2011
Afghan lawmakers say President Hamid Karzai has decided to terminate elections special tribunal on Thursday.
US Grants $5m for Expansion of Afghan Museum
Tolo news March 15, 2011
United States has pledged five million dollars for the expansion of Afghanistan's national museum.
Why not Incentive for Peace in Daikundi?
TOLOnews.com By Wazhma Frogh Tuesday, 15 March 2011
"It would be the luckiest days of the week, if we have our boiled potatoes, and each of us getting one of them" Amina, 9 year old living in Nilli, Centre of Daikundi.
Afghan Contract for Deloitte Suspended
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB And MATTHEW ROSENBERG MARCH 16, 2011
KABUL - The U.S. government has suspended Deloitte Consulting LLP's contract to advise Afghanistan's central bank ahead of the release Wednesday of an investigation into the regulator's failure to stem corruption at the country's largest private lender.
Waiting To Exhale In Kabul
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty By Helena Malikyar, Tanya Goudsouzian March 15, 2011
Seventeenth-century Persian poet Saeb Tabrizi famously sang the praises of Kabul's lush gardens and sparkling water, extolling "the beauty of her trees" and "colorful tulips" and beseeching Allah to "protect such beauty from the evil eye of man."
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General Sees Joint Bases for Afghans After 2014
New York Times By THOM SHANKER March 15, 2011
WASHINGTON - The American commander in Afghanistan and the Pentagon’s top policy officer on Tuesday described the value of sustaining a long-term relationship with Kabul, and raised the possibility of operating joint military bases with local forces long after foreign troops are scheduled to withdraw in 2014.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of American and coalition forces, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that “it’s very important to stay engaged in a region in which we have such vital interests.”
He cited his tenure as the senior commander in Iraq as an example of the benefits of the American military “providing enablers” — troops that train, advise and support local forces — in countries where the United States has important national security interests.
“I think the concept of joint basing, the concept of providing enablers for Afghan operations and so forth — frankly, similar to what we have done in Iraq since the mission changed there — would also be appropriate in Afghanistan,” General Petraeus said.
He and Michele A. Flournoy, the under secretary of defense for policy, noted that any continuing military relationship with Afghanistan would require negotiations with the government there.
“The president’s been also very clear from the beginning that we do not seek any permanent bases in Afghanistan — that we don’t seek to have a presence that any other country in the region would see as a threat,” Ms. Flournoy said.
She said negotiations with the Afghan government for American assistance beyond 2014 likely would include opportunities to help develop the country’s economy and system of governance.
While the focus of the hearing was the war in Afghanistan, a central theme was the threat of ungoverned areas of Pakistan serving as havens for terrorists and insurgents. Senators from both parties pressed to find out what could be done to assist — and even compel — Pakistan to do more to rout insurgents from those areas.
“The Pakistanis are the first to note that more needs to be done,” General Petraeus said. “There is, I think, a growing recognition that you cannot allow poisonous snakes to have a nest in your backyard even if they just bite the neighbor’s kids, because sooner or later they’re going to turn around and cause problems in your backyard.”
General Petraeus made clear that Al Qaeda continues to maintain a small presence inside Afghanistan, which under Taliban rule provided haven for Osama bin Laden to organize the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He said Al Qaeda has under 100 operatives or fighters inside Afghanistan today. He also said efforts to woo Taliban foot soldiers away from the insurgency were showing progress: About 700 former Taliban fighters had officially reintegrated with Afghan authorities and another 2,000 were now in early stages of the reintegration process.
General Petraeus said that while Afghan and coalition forces had turned back the Taliban’s initiative on the battlefield, he warned that progress remained “fragile and reversible.”
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for adding up to 70,000 Afghan troops and police, and he said the United States and its allies should press Afghan leaders to improve governance and public services, and fight corruption.
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NATO to Probe New Afghan Civilian Casualties
VOA News March 16, 2011
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered an investigation into yet another case of alleged civilian casualties caused by a coalition airstrike, this time involving the mistaken killing of two Afghan children.
General David Petraeus on Wednesday suspended the ground force commander and grounded the helicopter crew involved in the latest incident in the eastern province of Kunar.
Afghan officials say a coalition airstrike killed two boys watering fields in the Chowkay district on Tuesday. A NATO spokesman had said troops were targeting suspected insurgents planting a roadside bomb.
On Wednesday, Petraeus issued a statement saying the coalition's air weapons team may have unintentionally engaged civilians who were working on field and road drainage.
The NATO commander ordered a review of the directive on the use of force by all aircrew of attack helicopters. He also said the results of the probe could lead to disciplinary action.
The latest incident occurred just two weeks after a coalition airstrike killed nine Afghan boys in Kunar.
The issue of civilian deaths by foreign troops has angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai and prompted apologies from Petraeus and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
On Wednesday, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor said at least 390 civilians were killed in conflict-related security incidents in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2011 — a 7-percent increase compared to the same period last year.
The Kabul-based rights groups accused President Karzai, Taliban insurgents, the United States and NATO of politicizing the issue and called on all “warring parties” to spare no effort to protect Afghan civilians.
The Red Cross said Tuesday that security in Afghanistan deteriorated in the first two months of the year and that life for ordinary Afghans has become “untenable.”
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Afghanistan intelligence service detains seven terrorists
KABUL, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan intelligence service National Directorate of Security (NDS) has detained seven terrorists including a four-member group of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) over the past one week, the agency said Wednesday.
"Seven terrorists including a four-member group of IMU had been arrested over the past seven days," spokesman for NDS Lutfullah Mashal told reporters in a news conference here.
There are two Ukrainian nationals and one from Kyrgyzstan among those arrested over the past week during separate operations across the country, the official further emphasized.
He said both Ukrainians had confessed that they entered Marar-e- Sharif city, the provincial capital of the northern Balkh province on Feb. 22 this year.
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21 Afghan army soldiers killed in 25 days: official
KABUL, March 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 21 Afghan National Army soldiers have been killed in the past 25 days throughout the violence-hit Afghanistan, Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
"Over the past 25 days, a total of 21 Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel have been killed in security incidents and conflicts all over the country," General Zahir Azimi told reporters in weekly press briefing here.
On fighting against Taliban, Azimi said some 99 to 100 insurgents had been killed in the operations conducted by Afghan and NATO-led forces in the country in the past 25 days.
He said security forces had also detained 245 militants over the same period of time.
Briefing reporters on the start of transition of security from more than 140,000 NATO and U.S. forces to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), Azimi said that President Hamid Karzai will announce the date and the provinces handed over to Afghan side in couple of days, the first batch of provinces where transition will begin.
"The training of ANA has been on track and the number of ANA has reached to more than 155,000 as we talk," Azimi added.
He said Afghan Defense Ministry expected Afghanistan's international partners to speed up efforts to equip and provide more assistance for training of ANSF.
According to Azimi, 726 ANA soldiers and officers have been killed in the past one year.
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In Afghan Kilns, a Cycle of Debt and Servitude
New York Times By MICHAEL KAMBER March 15, 2011
WATA POOR, Afghanistan - The labor boss stood looking down at a man and his four sons squatting in the dirt, the boys mechanically rolling and slapping mud as they made line after line of dull gray bricks.
“See, there’s a sad story,” the boss, Gul Bacha, said as he pointed to the oldest son, Nick Muhammad, 18.
He said the young man had twice escaped to join the Afghan Army, but when his father needed another loan from Mr. Bacha, the boss forced him to bring his son back to work.
“His father came to me asking to borrow more money,” Mr. Bacha said. “I told him: ‘No. You must bring your son back here. Or else bring me the money you owe me and leave the house I have provided you.’ ”
The young Mr. Muhammad listened impassively to the tale of his unhappy return to the kiln in Nangarhar Province.
“I was 7 years old when I started this work,” he said later, when the boss was gone. “My family owed 10,000 rupees then. Today, we owe 150,000 rupees.”
The Muhammads are indentured servants, bought and paid for by Gul Bacha, who purchased their contracts from a kiln owner in Pakistan, where they had been living as refugees. Like tens of thousands of Afghans, the Muhammads are trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty that keeps them indebted to their employers — a situation common at many of the dusty brick kilns that dot the countryside, as well as in some other industries, particularly in rural areas.
After decades of violence, Afghanistan has few banks, and the people who labor at the kilns would almost surely be too poor to qualify for loans. Instead, they borrow from their employers, who generally pay them pennies an hour for their grueling labor — barely enough to survive and too little to pay off debts that only grow with each passing year.
For a vast majority of workers, there is no escape — for them or for their children, who are bound by their parents’ contracts. Their best hope is that the boss will sell their contract to another kiln, where they might be paid more. No matter what, the loan will follow them. In some cases, children are held as their parents’ collateral.
It is illegal for children younger than 15 to work long hours or do heavy labor, and the government says it is trying to provide education and help to families so they do not have to send their children to work at the kilns.
The use of child labor is also a concern of NATO forces in Afghanistan, particularly those involved in reconstruction programs. Yet kiln owners and contractors say bricks made by children are routinely used in NATO projects.
A spokesman for the international security force in Afghanistan, Lt. Bashon W. Mann, said that the force conducted frequent inspections at construction sites and that the coalition had no knowledge of having used building materials made by children.
At the kiln where Nick Muhammad works, his father, Zar Muhammad, 55, said he was haunted by guilt that his children would inherit his debt. His two youngest sons, Gul, 7, and Neyaz, 8, worked beside him in the mud as he spoke.
Neyaz’s hands fly with astonishing speed. But the boy looks worn down, exhausted by 12-hour days that start before dawn.
“I don’t like this job,” he said. “I want to go to school and to become a doctor to serve my people and my country.”
There are 90 kilns in the Surkhrod District alone, with an average of 150 to 200 children working in each one, according to Hajji Mirwais, director of the brick kiln union here.
“These children in the kilns work in a state of near slavery,” said Sarah Crowe, Unicef’s regional chief of communication for South Asia.
“Not only do they suffer from the extreme weather, they are breathing in the smoke from the kilns every day,” Ms. Crowe said. “It leads to one of the highest death rates in the country from pneumonia and acute respiratory infections.”
Zar Muhammad’s troubles began 30 years ago when he took a loan from a kiln owner to marry. (The elaborate marriage and funeral ceremonies expected by Afghans frequently cost several years’ worth of wages, forcing many people to take out loans that they must work off.)
Mr. Muhammad soon realized that his weekly earnings in the kiln left little or no money to pay down the principal. As his family grew, he — like other workers here — found himself having to borrow more money to pay for medicine for his children and other basic needs. His debt to the owner grew greater by the year.
The kiln owner pays Mr. Muhammad and his four sons about $10 for the 2,500 bricks they make in an average day.
The owner can usually make $160 selling that many bricks.
The kiln manager and labor boss defend their practices, saying they have helped many workers who, like Mr. Muhammad, were Afghan refugees stranded in brick kilns in Pakistan.
“They were hostages in Pakistan,” Mr. Bacha said. “I paid their loans and brought them back to their own country. Once they finish their loan, then they can leave.”
He also noted that owners provided houses, electricity, beds, blankets, water and cash for workers’ family expenses, and served as a safety net with more loans when family members fell ill.
The workers say the houses and handouts are a blessing and a curse, keeping them alive but eternally bound to the kilns and the difficult, low-paying jobs.
“We are slaves here because when you owe someone money, then of course you’re a slave,” said Mir Ali, former director of the All Afghanistan labor union, who works in the kilns with his children. “If we try to raise our voice, then the owner of the brick kilns will tell us to empty their house and go from here.”
Sad Kibir Bacha, the district governor for Surkhrod, said he had recently been transferred to the area and was not familiar with the conditions the workers labored under. He estimated, however, that at least 5,000 children worked in the kilns in his district.
“I know this not good for kids,” he said in an interview. “But we have to build our buildings, build our country.” He added that the work provided income for the children’s families.
Even Ms. Crowe of Unicef agrees, to a point. “It is easy to say, ‘Take them from the kilns,’ ” she said, but added, “If you take away supplemental income from a poor family, then that has to be replaced with something.”
The young Mr. Muhammad wants to get married soon. But he looks at his father, trapped in the fields of brick for 30 years.
“I will have to borrow money to get married,” he said. “But I am afraid if I borrow money from the kiln owner, then I will have to work here forever.”
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U.S. General Cites 'Significant' Progress In Afghanistan, But Calls Gains 'Fragile'
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 15, 2011 By Heather Maher
The commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan has told a Senate committee that NATO forces have largely succeeding in halting the momentum of the Taliban and that U.S. plans to begin withdrawing troops in July remain on schedule.
But in his first testimony before Congress since he took command last year, U.S. General David Petraeus also warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that gains by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are not solidified and could still be reversed.
"It is ISAF's assessment that the momentum achieved by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2005 has been arrested in much of the country and reversed in a number of important areas," Petraeus said. "However, while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant, it is also fragile and reversible."
The scheduled start of American troop withdrawals is part of President Barack Obama's year-old revamped counterinsurgency strategy, which calls for military involvement to continue through 2014 as Afghan forces are simultaneously trained to take over security responsibilities.
In several Afghan provinces, that transfer can begin within a few months, Petraeus told the committee.
But he also told lawmakers that "much difficult work lies ahead" for NATO and its Afghan partners as an expected Taliban spring offensive approaches.
Endemic Obstacles?
In addition to the fierce resistance shown by the Taliban in the face of Obama's stepped-up counterinsurgency strategy, progress in the 10-year-old war is being hindered by what is seen as a corrupt and inefficient central government in Kabul and the continued use by insurgents of safe havens in Pakistan.
Petraeus said NATO is now coordinating "more closely than ever" with the Pakistani Army to defeat Taliban insurgents who try to cross the border, known as the Durand Line.
NATO troops, he said, "will provide the anvil on the Afghan side" of the line.
"We have positioned more forces as well to interdict the flow of fighters and explosives from insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan, and we will do further work with our Afghan partners to establish as much of a defense in depth as possible to disrupt infiltration of Taliban and Haqqani network members," Petraeus added.
Islamabad has been reluctant to move into insurgent strongholds in North Waziristan, where senior Al-Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, are thought to be hiding.
Washington 'Caution'
During the hearing, senators from both parties acknowledged that NATO's success in Afghanistan is far from assured, with the chairman of the committee, Carl Levin (Democrat-Michigan), saying that the mission hinges on the ability of Afghan security forces to hold the ground that they and NATO forces have cleared.
Levin said as many as 70,000 additional Afghan police and troops are needed to get that job done.
Senator John McCain, the senior Republican on the committee, said he believes the U.S. and its allies "are turning around the war in Afghanistan."
But he also said that Washington needs to be "extremely cautious" about starting a withdrawal of U.S. forces this summer.
"Perhaps the wisest course of action in July may be to reinvest troops from more secure to less secure parts of Afghanistan where additional forces could have a decisive impact," McCain said. "In short, we should not rush to failure, and we should cultivate strategic patience."
Civilian Deaths
In his testimony, Petraeus also addressed the increasingly sensitive issue of civilian casualties caused by NATO air strikes.
In the worst recent incident, nine children collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan were killed on March 1. In response, Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared that "poor and innocent civilians...have continued on [a] daily basis to suffer in the unjustifiable operations and bombings carried out by NATO."
NATO-led forces have significantly tightened rules governing air strikes and night raids in the past two years, which has led to a drop in civilian casualties from coalition actions. But deaths are still relatively frequent and highly sensitive.
Petraeus apologized personally to Karzai for the children's deaths and, in an unusually contrite statement before meeting with the Afghan leader, he said, "We are deeply sorry for this tragedy and apologize to the members of the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan and most importantly, the surviving family members of those killed by our actions."
But Karzai told Petraeus that his apology for the strike was "not enough" and said civilian casualties by foreign troops were "no longer acceptable" to the Afghan government or people.
Petraeus told the Senate committee on March 15 that he has ordered a review of how attacks are ordered and carried out.
"In view of several tragic incidents in recent weeks, I ordered a review of our tactical directive on the use of force by levels of our chain of command and with the air crews of our attack helicopters," Petraeus said. "However, I also re-emphasized instructions on reducing damage to infrastructure and property to an absolute minimum. Counterinsurgents cannot succeed if they harm the people they are striving to protect."
Last year was the most lethal for noncombatants since the Taliban was ousted from power in 2001, with a 15 percent rise in civilian casualties to 2,777, according to a report by the United Nations last week. The report said insurgents were responsible for three-quarters of the deaths.
Petraeus also testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 15, but that hearing was classified "top secret" and closed to the press.
with additional agency reports
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Taliban Leaders Divided: NDS
Tolo news March 16, 2011
There have been serious disagreements between Taliban leaders and their fighters within the Taliban's leading council, National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Wednesday.
The differences among the Taliban leaders and their fighters have made the Taliban to step up suicide attacks in cooperation with al-Qaeda network in a bid to conceal their defeat in Afghanistan, NDS Spokesperson Lotfullah Mashal said.
Mr Mashal said a number of foreign insurgents with crucial role in recent wave of attacks in northern Afghanistan have been detained.
He said military pressures by Afghan and foreign troops have forced out insurgents to hide somewhere in Pakistan and refuse to resume their fight in Afghanistan.
"There have been differences of opinion between low and high level Taliban leaders within Taliban's Quetta Shura, Haqqani network and Taliban's council in Peshawar," Mr Mashal said.
An increase in suicide attacks in the north and especially in Kunduz province is a sign of Taliban's failure and panic, he said.
The Taliban have lost all their strongholds and their momentum has been reversed in most all parts of the country, he said.
National security department said two Ukrainian militants along with their Afghan associates have been arrested.
Until insurgent sanctuaries beyond the Afghan borders are not rooted out, the counterinsurgency fight would not lead to victory, he said.
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Karzai to Dissolve Special Electoral Tribunal
Tolo news March 15, 2011
Afghan lawmakers say President Hamid Karzai has decided to terminate elections special tribunal on Thursday.
Yesterday evening at a meeting with 35 legislators, President Karzai pledged to dissolve the tribunal, parliamentarians said.
President Karzai sees termination of the special tribunal as the only way to bring an end to tensions of September fraud-tainted parliamentary elections, lawmakers claimed.
Elections special tribunal was formed by President Karzai at the suggestion of Supreme Court to investigate into electoral frauds.
"This is clear to the President that what special tribunal is doing in the provinces is against the law," Kamal Naser Osuli, an Afghan MP, said.
"President's Office has a strong tendency to put an end to this saga," Mohammad Arif Rahmani, another Afghan MP, said.
Parliamentarians claimed that termination of the special tribunal was postponed only because of Karzai's serious talks with head of the High Court.
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US Grants $5m for Expansion of Afghan Museum
Tolo news March 15, 2011
United States has pledged five million dollars for the expansion of Afghanistan's national museum.
Officials in Information and Culture Ministry said the land for the expansion of the museum is provided by Afghan ministry of defence.
Construction work for the expansion of national museum will soon begin after a commission of national and international figures is formed, officials said.
Afghanistan's national museum dates back to a hundred years ago and it houses all the primitive pieces and cultural heritage related to the country's past.
At a conference held in Kabul to discuss expansion of the museum officials said another two million dollars has been made from Afghanistan's Bactrian gold display in most parts of the world and ministry of mines has also pledged one million dollars for the expansion project.
"As the American ambassador I'm delighted to be here today to make a small grant on behalf of my people of five million dollars for the expansion of this museum," US ambassador Karl Eikenberry said during the conference in Kabul.
"This museum represents the future of Afghanistan, a normal Afghanistan that can enjoy its past and have great confidence on its future," Mr Eikenberry further said.
At the sideline of the conference, historical pieces discovered from Logar Ainak copper mine, were put on display.
French archeologists along with Afghans are excavating at the Ainak copper mine for remaining historical pieces.
Around 70,000 historical pieces in the museum were looted during the devastating wars in the country.
Kabul Museum was bulit under Afghan King Amanullah. It suffered damages and lootings during the three decades of war, but Unesco renovated the museum in 2004.
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Why not Incentive for Peace in Daikundi?
TOLOnews.com By Wazhma Frogh Tuesday, 15 March 2011
"It would be the luckiest days of the week, if we have our boiled potatoes, and each of us getting one of them" Amina, 9 year old living in Nilli, Centre of Daikundi.
I have been following Daikundi since 2008 after the deployment of Afghanistan's first female mayor in Nilli. Many of us in civil society and women groups struggled hard to get her required resources to prove her as the right choice, but we failed to receive tangible international support in the form of concrete projects.
I went to Daikundi for the first time in early March 2011. Though, the trip was for work purposes, the realities I witnessed there should be communicated to the society at large and especially to those who are engaged in the ‘community development' and ‘poverty reduction' projects in Afghanistan with millions of dollars.
While planning for the trip, I was advised to take food from Kabul since there are no markets in Nili, nor there are any stocks of food so in case the chopper doesn't come as planned, one should have some food to survive. Initially, I did not trust the advice, and questioned how thousands of Afghans living there survive on daily basis. The response from some of the ‘development practitioners' was very simple. Daikundi is basically a secure place and there is no insurgency and one of the two provinces in the country that does not have any PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams). Therefore, it doesn't get aid as does its border province, Uruzgan for its insurgency and armed conflict ongoing.
After landing in Nilli, the mountain-locked district of Daikundi, I couldn't witness the presence of human beings around so thought maybe it's a very small community of around a hundred people. But as made my way through the snow and mud towards the city, saw small houses on peaks of the hills and spotted human heads around those houses. I don't know if it would be fair to call those mud shells as houses, made of four walls and covered by snow. According to the Provincial Governor's Office and its members of parliament, Daikundi has around 800,000 population.
They have no water, as the water level is too low and some people with better access use grenades to dig wells for water. It would be interesting to find out how those 'some' get grenades while there is'nt any obvious form of insurgency there. Daikundi is bordered by Uruzgan, and used to be a district of Uruzgan until it was delcared as a province recently.
People almost dream of electricity and a market of 5 shops for thousands of Nilli residents would be lucky if the shopkeepers can travel for days to get to a larger market in surrounding provinces for basic survival stuff.
While on my way to Department of Women's Affairs, saw small children around age of 4 or 5 stuck in the snow and mud while another child of 7 or 8 was pulling him/her out of the mud. This is the main road of the Nilli city, which is the centre. But it shouldn't be called a road, it's only a direction and if any adult can take themselves out of the mud , they should be awarded for courage and dedication- why to even think about small children?
Inside the Department of Women's Affairs, met a young girl around 9, crying so badly that couldn't help but to go to her and ask why. This was Amina, whose mother had passed away a couple of days before while delivering her 8th child. I asked Amina whether her mother died in the clinic. She suddenly stopped crying and stared as if I had asked her a puzzle. The elder girl who had accompanied Amina laughed out of sarcasm and didn't even respond. After asking a couple of other women, found out that there is a clinic but with almost no female staff, forget about female doctor- and they said in this mud and snow, a pregnant woman would anyway die on the way to clinic which takes around 8 hours from her village.
These are some of the very basic miseries, I won't even detail out the lack of access to education and other basic services as they become secondary to the dire need of struggling to remain alive in Daikundi.
The politics of international development aid in Afghanistan becomes clearer when one visits the most remote and most vulnerable communities of the country - aid for insurgency or insurgency for aid. What are the incentives for peace? While millions of dollars are poured into provinces plagued with violence and conflict, why don't provinces like Daikundi get attention to prove itself a real model for development and reducing poverty? And the Afghanistan Peace and Re-integration Programme with millions of dollars from foreign aid provides incentives of war to insurgents, is another certification of a policy that would eventually drive the young men from Daikundi to join insurgents and militants fighting in its surrounding provinces of Uruzgan, Ghazni, Zabul and Helmand.
"If the international aid is another parallel to counter-insurgency, then why to even name it international development aid", said a couple of young graduates who returned to Daikundi after completing their graduation at Kabul University. They said, "When we returned back, we used to encourage young boys and girls to study and get educated. But having been lost in poverty, we forget about education. It's only about a struggle to be able to remain alive each day, what happens tomorrow, we don't know".
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Afghan Contract for Deloitte Suspended
Wall Street Journal By MARIA ABI-HABIB And MATTHEW ROSENBERG MARCH 16, 2011
KABUL - The U.S. government has suspended Deloitte Consulting LLP's contract to advise Afghanistan's central bank ahead of the release Wednesday of an investigation into the regulator's failure to stem corruption at the country's largest private lender.
An investigation by the inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which issued the contract to Deloitte, is expected to be highly critical of the firm's failure to flag corruption at Kabul Bank, saddled with losses estimated to be as high as $900 million. Kabul Bank's problems brought Afghanistan's financial sector to its knees last fall.
The contract was suspended Monday but Deloitte's other contracts with USAID will continue, a USAID spokesman said.
Deloitte was tasked with helping clean up Afghanistan's poorly regulated financial sector by providing technical assistance to the central bank when it started the contract in August 2009. But the contract was reviewed by USAID's inspector general following a run by depositors on Kabul Bank in the fall, after shareholders were reported to have engaged in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of financial impropriety.
"We did terminate part of the Deloitte contract in Afghanistan that deals with the central bank," USAID spokesman Lars Anderson said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "We don't believe that Deloitte can be held responsible for the fraud at Kabul Bank but we do want our technical assistance to be as effective as possible." Mr. Anderson declined to comment on whether the five-year, roughly $3.3 million contract will be retendered.
"Deloitte Consulting's performance of its obligations—including communications—was consistent with the terms of its engagement," a spokesman for Deloitte said. "We are working with USAID to wind down this piece of the program."
A spokesman for Afghanistan's central bank couldn't be reached for comment.
James Charlifue, the chief of staff for USAID's inspector general, declined to discuss the report's findings before it is issued to USAID on Wednesday.
Corruption at Kabul Bank—and Afghan resistance to a full accounting of went wrong at the lender—has complicated negotiations to renew the International Monetary Fund's assistance program to Afghanistan at a time when the Afghan government is trying to get the international community to direct more development money through its coffers. The lack of IMF backing threatens billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan; last week the U.K. government said it would delay 85 million pounds, or $137.6 million, in aid to Afghanistan this year "in light of a continuing absence of an IMF program in the country."
The IMF has recommended that Kabul Bank sell off its assets to stymie losses. But an Afghan official involved in the Kabul Bank investigation said that the Afghan government insists on rehabilitating the bank, which could bring losses to as high as $900 million.
Kabul Bank shareholders used the lender's deposits to buy million-dollar homes in Dubai, maintain luxurious lifestyles and invest in separate businesses.
In a separate development Tuesday, Afghan officials said that a coalition airstrike in eastern Kunar province late Monday night killed two children while they watered crops. Kunar's police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said the children were mistaken for insurgents planting mines in the area.
A coalition investigation into the deaths is underway, said coalition spokesman British Army Major Tim James.
The deaths threaten to further rock the tumultuous relationship between Mr. Karzai and the U.S.-led coalition, which came under increased tension this month when a helicopter strike killed nine Afghan children, also in Kunar. Mr. Karzai has repeatedly appealed to U.S. military officials to limit airstrikes and night raids, which are criticized by human rights groups for the heavy civilian casualties they inflict.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that the first two months of this year has seen security deteriorate drastically for ordinary Afghans caught between increased insurgent and coalition attacks.Â
"One of the ICRC's major preoccupations over the past two months has been how to remain fully operational despite the poor security conditions," the emailed statement said.
Dion Nissenbaum contributed to this article.
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Waiting To Exhale In Kabul
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty By Helena Malikyar, Tanya Goudsouzian March 15, 2011
Seventeenth-century Persian poet Saeb Tabrizi famously sang the praises of Kabul's lush gardens and sparkling water, extolling "the beauty of her trees" and "colorful tulips" and beseeching Allah to "protect such beauty from the evil eye of man."
Some 400 years later, the so-called king of poets must be rolling over in his tomb, as the last three decades seem to have brought much evil to this ancient city that connects Central and South Asia.
As Afghans prepare for Norouz, the ancient Zoroastrian New Year's festival heralding the beginning of spring, the stench of burning tires and leaded gasoline fills the air in lieu of the spirit of fertility and nature’s rebirth.
On the eve of the holiday, the international community offered yet another symbolic gesture toward addressing Afghanistan's critical environmental problems. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry planted the first of the 240,000 trees that Washington has donated to Afghanistan, and the gift was graciously accepted by the mayor of Kabul as a significant contribution toward the reforestation of his city.
Unfortunately, Kabul's environmental problems cannot be solved by this horticultural donation alone. Nor can the alarming levels of air pollution be curbed by a recent government decision to make Thursdays nonworking days, thus expanding the weekend to two days. Afghan environmentalists called this act a clumsy bid to avoid effective measures while pretending to take steps.
Kabul streets are jammed with rattling jalopies, used privately or masquerading as taxis. Piles of rubbish and old tires are routinely burned for warmth by less fortunate residents and used as fuel in public bathhouses and brick kilns in the capital's suburbs.
Dramatic Deterioration
Experts agree that the government's lack of determination to implement environmental laws -- together with a lack of environmental awareness among the general populace, most of whom are grappling with urban survival -- has led to a dramatic deterioration of Kabul's once lush and fragrant urban landscape.
Emissions from old cars reportedly cause 70 to 75 percent of the air pollution in Kabul. And yet, tens of thousands of substandard, secondhand cars are imported every year. The resulting air pollution may lead directly to an estimated 3,000 annual fatalities, according to the Health Ministry. To put this in perspective, according to the United Nations, the number of reported civilian casualties in the war against the insurgency during 2010 was 2,777.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says that most of the fuels used in Afghanistan do not comply with international standards and contain high levels of lead. A study carried out by the Health Ministry in 2009 showed that the blood samples of 80 percent of some 200 Kabul residents contained lead.
The city of Kabul was built with an infrastructure to support 1 million residents. It was designed to allow a maximum circulation of 75,000 cars. In 1978, the city's population was estimated to be a little over half a million. Today, there are nearly 4 million people living in the capital and more than 400,000 cars are circulating -- not counting buses, freight trucks, and vehicles operated by the military, police, NATO, and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
While an overabundance of older, substandard vehicles is among the chief causes of the deplorable quality of air in the Afghan capital, the problem is exacerbated by a lethal combination of gross negligence of solid and liquid waste; deforestation and the disappearance of wetlands; substandard generators built from old car engines; and the misguided use of coal, tires, and plastic for fuel.
What A Waste
Kabul's large population produces a large amount of garbage. And with no systematic garbage collection and disposal, the result is large piles of garbage on every street corner, scattered about by stray dogs during the night. In all urban centers, including Kabul, solid waste is dumped in valleys and open fields, some barely 10 kilometers from city centers. In addition to contributing to air pollution, these open landfills contaminate underground water. It costs $8 million to $10 million to construct a proper landfill, but no one has earmarked sufficient funds for this purpose.
Most of the city's hills and mountain tops are occupied by houses that lack sanitation and access to clean water. During rain and snow, runoff saturated with human waste is transported down the hills into the streets below. The mix eventually dries and is swept into the air by the wind and traffic.
By all accounts, air pollution is a potentially calamitous threat to public safety in Afghanistan. In its 2005-06 assessment, the UNEP reported that 60 percent of the population in Kabul is exposed to elevated concentrations of particulate matter, nitrous oxides, and sulphur dioxide. In the past nine years, there have been around 480,000 reported cases of respiratory illness and asthma, according to the Health Ministry.
The conditions are so dire that last year Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) issued an advisory recommending the use of masks or other protective devices during the morning and evening rush hours. NEPA's alerts and recommendations have fallen on deaf ears.
Environmental experts argue that government negligence and corruption have impeded the implementation of environmental regulations. The government, they point out, has flouted NEPA recommendations on the prohibition on importing old cars and the rigorous implementation of emissions tests. Politicians routinely succumb to pressure or enticements from business.
Chain Reactions
Environmental issues work in chain reactions. Deforestation and the mismanagement of forests in the northwest, the east, and the southeast have not only contributed to damaging the ecobalance but have also taken the livelihood from tens of thousands of people whose traditional occupations were related to forestry. This phenomenon in turn has contributed to the population explosion in the urban centers.
By contrast, the Pakistani lumber business has boomed from illegally cut and exported lumber from eastern Afghanistan. Iranian pistachios now dominate the market due to a dramatic decrease in the quality of the harvest from the northwestern pistachio farms of Afghanistan.
The Afghan cabinet on January 30 ordered the immediate formation of a special commission to investigate Kabul's air pollution, identify its causes, and make recommendations for action. Thus far, nothing has been made public about the commission's status.
What better way to start a new year than to begin contributing, in earnest, to the process of nature's renewal and to restoring fresh air to the battered capital. President Hamid Karzai's government can dispel critics by actively showing it has the political will to give precedence to the environment rather than to individual interests for economic gain.
Regulations drawn up by NEPA and UNEP ought to be implemented, rather than cosmetic measures that only serve to protect those who are benefiting from unregulated emission production. The import of old cars simply must be stopped and regular technical checks imposed.
A rigorous environmental awareness campaign must be launched through the media, the pulpit, and workshops. Afghan civil society must be mobilized to become a partner in this awareness campaign. The dangers of toxic gases emitted from old cars; leaded fuel; and burning tires, plastic, and coal must be clearly, forcefully, and sustainably pounded into the public mind. Kabul residents must have access to efficient public transportation and must be encouraged to use bicycles for short journeys.
Finally, although environmental consciousness is a novel concept for Afghans, who have been busy fighting invaders and each other for the past three decades, the international community is well aware that today’s air pollution casualties will only increase exponentially -- if energy, resources, and imagination are not dedicated to cleaning up Afghanistan’s environment.
Helena Malikyar specializes in Afghan state-building. Tanya Goudsouzian is a journalist who has covered Afghanistan since 2001. The views expressed in this commentary are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL
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